Prosecution letter - railcard fine

[charlotteliv]

Hi,

I got stopped at Waterloo randomly and I had bought a ticket with a young persons rail card and I don’t have one. South western trains have now looked back at my Trainline account and say I owe them £2k backdated to 2022 where I have said I have a railcard and I don’t. They have said i can pay this now to avoid court.

I have accepted that I am going to have to just pay this but is there anyway at all I can get this cost down?

I have had health issues and 4 operations this year alone but not sure that will go down well as an excuse, although I have medical documents I could show.

Any advise would be welcome

 

[jfollows]

Welcome to the forum!

They have the upper hand here, of course.

They normally ask for full undiscounted single fares with no credit for any discounted tickets. Plus an admin fee for their investigation costs.

You don’t have to agree with them, but if you don’t pay it will go to court, they will ask for reimbursement plus you will be fined, so it will probably cost more and you will have a criminal record.

You can look up fares at https://www.brfares.com/!home

Note that they can only prosecute you for offences within the last six months. But they can ask what they like in lieu of prosecution. So you can be prosecuted for recent months or you can pay them what they ask for based on their records.

 

[Watershed]

This thread might be worth reading through, to see some of the potential arguments against their demand for the full Anytime Singles for each journey made.

But as @jfollows says, you are in a slightly different situation since the original offence you were stopped for was within the last 6 months. Therefore they have more negotiating 'power' - they can ultimately just prosecute you for that, if you won't agree to their settlement.

In our experience, train companies don't tend to negotiate on out of Court settlements. At best you can hope for a payment plan.

 

[WesternLancer]

Unless the health issues made you buy discounted tickets that you were not entitled to then I can’t see what relevance they will think that has.

I can see that health issues might result in a low income but they won’t be interested in that line of argument I fear.

However. You probably should ask them politely for a breakdown of how they have arrived at this sum for you to check it, unless you know full well that this is likely to be what you owe. They may have made errors.

Before you write to them however I would suggest you check the wording of a draft here before you send it.

Sadly you are not in a strong position if you have been persistently and deliberately evading the correct fare I fear.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Sep 2025 ==

I’m assuming you did indeed never have a Railcard during this period but bought some or all of your tickets with a railcard discount applied? Is this correct?

 

[charlotteliv]

Hi,

I have now hired legal advise but I have received the letter and have been told that my Trainline account has been backdated by years. To protect myself I won’t say what they have threatened to prosecute me with but it’s for multiple fare evading tactics. I believe I will have to pay over £10,000 and I am incredibly stressed.

I have had severe health complications over the last 3 years, including 7 operations. I told this to my amazing solisitor and he said he will do anything he can to get the payment down but I don’t know if they will buy this? I have been completely honestly with the journeys that didn’t look right etc.

Thank you.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Sep 2025 ==

Unless the health issues made you buy discounted tickets that you were not entitled to then I can’t see what relevance they will think that has.

I can see that health issues might result in a low income but they won’t be interested in that line of argument I fear.

However. You probably should ask them politely for a breakdown of how they have arrived at this sum for you to check it, unless you know full well that this is likely to be what you owe. They may have made errors.

Before you write to them however I would suggest you check the wording of a draft here before you send it.

Sadly you are not in a strong position if you have been persistently and deliberately evading the correct fare I fear.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Sep 2025 ==

I’m assuming you did indeed never have a Railcard during this period but bought some or all of your tickets with a railcard discount applied? Is this correct?

They have sent me a a breakdown and I have gone back with the ones that are a mistake which is only about 5% of them. I am scared they will look in to my account even deeper now. I am hoping having a solisitor on board will get my fine down slightly but I’m not sure it works that way.

 

[SouthernOne]

They can only prosecute you for the one offence that you got caught for. You would be prosecuted under the railway bylaws. This might be a better option for you as the total cost would most likely be under £1000. Plus, stop using trainline! Use Uber or something that’s not connected to trainline.

 

[jfollows]

If you’re paying for legal advice I don’t think we can help you here, if we advise one thing but your paid legal advice advises something different what do you do? We do not want to be in competition with others.

What happens when you tell your lawyer that you’re getting free advice from an Internet forum?

 

[AlterEgo]

If you're instructing a solicitor you need to take the advice they give you which you are paying a lot of money for.

 

[Haywain]

They can only prosecute you for the one offence that you got caught for.

I would be very wary of suggesting this when we don't know what they have found.

 

[AlterEgo]

I would be very wary of suggesting this when we don't know what they have found.

Indeed. If there is a lot of offending across multiple years and using different tactics the OP could be facing a fraud charge. But that is for their solicitor to advise at this point.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi,

I have now hired legal advise but I have received the letter and have been told that my Trainline account has been backdated by years. To protect myself I won’t say what they have threatened to prosecute me with but it’s for multiple fare evading tactics. I believe I will have to pay over £10,000 and I am incredibly stressed.

I have had severe health complications over the last 3 years, including 7 operations. I told this to my amazing solisitor and he said he will do anything he can to get the payment down but I don’t know if they will buy this? I have been completely honestly with the journeys that didn’t look right etc.

Thank you.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Sep 2025 ==


They have sent me a a breakdown and I have gone back with the ones that are a mistake which is only about 5% of them. I am scared they will look in to my account even deeper now. I am hoping having a solisitor on board will get my fine down slightly but I’m not sure it works that way.

Hopefully your solicitor can get a good result and set out your options.

I hope you are using a solicitor that specialises in this area of activity. The ones mentioned on here from time to time usually get good feedback from people who have used them.

Good luck with getting this resolved without undue distress.

 

[furlong]

I suggest you show the solicitor the thread that Watershed mentioned in particular looking first at this post https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/expired-railcard.289594/post-7426141 to see if any of the ideas might be adaptable to your situation.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Sep 2025 ==

Also make sure they are aware of the case of Peter Barnett who successfully reduced the amount of compensation the train company was trying to obtain from him.

Daily Telegraph

The City barrister, who was cautioned for fare dodging in 2010, was handed a 16-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered pay £5,892.70 in compensation to Chiltern Railways at City of London Magistrates.

Judge Omotosho said: "Looking at all the evidence in the round I am satisfied that a reasonable attempt has been made by the defendant to calculate loss to the company and in this case the actual loss is £5,892.70 and not the £19,689 as claimed."